UHSAA, legislators set meeting today

The Utah High School Activities Association's members and staff will meet with legislators of the Administrative Rules Review Committee today at 9 a.m.

Executive director Evan Excell said they were asked by the committee's leadership to discuss the UHSAA's relationship to the state and whether the rules are in harmony with the state's laws, specifically open enrollment laws.

In the committee's April 25 meeting, the issue of charter schools participating in UHSAA-sanctioned sports was discussed. Currently there are four charter schools that have membership in the UHSAA. In the minutes of that meeting, there was a discussion about whether students could attend a charter school but play sports for their home-boundary school. This is possible under current rules if the charter school has an agreement that states that in its charter. Otherwise, students can participate in sports through the state's co-op rule.

Utah state law says that, "the State Board of Education, in consultation with the Utah High School Activities Association, shall establish policies regarding non-resident student participation in interscholastic competition."

The meeting will take place in room W135, and the agenda lists several presenters, including Excell.

The executive committee voted last week on new brackets that take into consideration changes in realignment. One of those changes is that three Region 9 teams will enter the playoffs as 4A teams, while the other three remaining schools will participate in state meets and tournaments as 3A teams. Pine View (1,421 students), Dixie (1,300 students) and Snow Canyon (1,154 students) will all enter 4A playoffs with different regions depending on the sport. Canyon View (775), Cedar City (726) and Hurricane (824) will all enter the playoffs as 3A teams.

Southern Utah officials hope two new schools in the area will allow them to form their own region in the same classification eventually.

The UHSAA executive committee also voted to make a rule change that will allow those in the lightest wrestling weight classes to lose more than 1 percent body weight and still compete in that weight class. The special allowance is for two- or three-day tournaments only and will be detailed in the association's new handbook next month.

The UHSAA also voted to have an arbiter assign judges for all sanctioned drill team meets. The arbiter will select judges for the meet and the state tournament, and the hope is that this will keep judges from seeing the same routines and teams all season and then having to judge them again in the state tournament.